1980 Rabbit AHU

do those tires rub?

i have been using those oil leak dye detectors lately after a washing and jacking up/running on level ground and really like how i have been able to find some leaks in the dark.

This was just mentioned in one of the forums...If you have one, check your oil pressure sensor on the oil filter bracket. The leak forms from within and would make the inside of the sensor terminal and harness connector oily. Just dealt with it myself.

As for the coolant cap leak, it could be a head gasket. Tee in a 0-30PSI gauge into the coolant overflow line going to the reservoir. See what kind of pressures that you are dealing with. At about 25PSI the cap safety valve should pop (maybe a little higher the first time) and the pressure will go down. I have seen some breached cooling systems respond as quickly as a boost gauge. Most healthy cars will hover at about 8-12 PSI even when driven hard. These engines are meant to run at 190*F. I would not try to change that but find out why yours can't.

Great job car looks amazing. I love my 84 GTI

Wow! Great project.

My first VW diesel was a 1980 Black Rabbit with the little 1.5 engine! I purchased it in January of 1980....... drove that thing all of the USA.

So, minor update...but not a good one.



Something broke in the head for Cyl #1 and did this:






Which unfortunately allowed the valve to completely drop into the cylinder on the down stroke and upon piston going up....I found myself with a boat anchor of a motor.






Towed it to my friends place where it has been sitting for a month or so awaiting a painting project we're doing to finish up before this can be torn down.



I bought another AHU longblock to get the car up and running in time for MK1Madness (in less than 3 weeks....) and a few other parts so hopefully I can make it



Once the engine is out and the car is back together I'll tear down the old motor and take some pictures once I see the carnage first hand.

Some progress made this weekend, got the longblock picked up from where I was keeping it by my work, tore it down to check the cyl walls and overall condition, was going to check the main and rod cap bearings but realized since they were all TTY and I have a deadline to get this running I prayed to sweet baby rays and gave it a good washing.

Got the engine pretty much completely assembled, timing belt kicked my ass for some reason but such is life. Just need to take the trans off of the old engine, swap the clutch and other parts over and it should be good to bolt in. Would LOVE to have it ready tomorrow but we'll see.

I'll also throw in some carnage pics at the bottom.






Carnage: Was cruising on the highway coming back from Ocean City Maryland and all of a sudden it went down on power, pulled over, sounded like the exhaust was banging on the floor and then when I got back in to get me off of the bridge it just locked up. Came to a stop when I tried to bump start it.

Assuming a lifter was the first point of failure.

Looks like an Exhaust Valve gave up the Ghost....

Several likely reasons for this to happen.

1. As you suggested, lifter failed
2. Valve failure due to fatigue
3. Valve failure due to carbon breaking loose somewhere upstream (head intake ports)
4. Valve seat failure
5. Valve failure due to a previous bump with the piston as a result of a botched TB job (or something similar)

The head on my brother's 03 Jetta (now mine with an 01 engine) looked pretty much the same. He was doing 70 mph and had pretty much the same symptoms.

Notice a lot of that "trash and debris" got sucked up into the Intake System and ended up in the other cylinders...

Yeah, the head was taken to a machine shop and given a full service, so not sure where it went wrong. Oh well.

Got the engine and trans mated tonight, was hoping to get it into the car but ran out of time

I install a lot of new cams and lifters on AHUs and ALHs because of excessive wear, I bet the parkerizing was long gone and should have been renewed.

Is that a '64 Chevy hiding in the background?

jmodge said:

Is that a '64 Chevy hiding in the background?

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Yup, its a '64 Imp SS project of my friend and his father. They've been working on it for a few years now, was a complete rust bucket but almost every body panel was replaced or repaired. Should be super fun, OEM-ish 5.3 swap with a TKO 5 speed trans.



He and I gave it a shot at painting it since places would tell him 6 month lead time was too short and never gave a solid quote.

GTiTDi said:

I install a lot of new cams and lifters on AHUs and ALHs because of excessive wear, I bet the parkerizing was long gone and should have been renewed.

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That's probably the best bet, I've been on a time crunch for this one but I'd like to snag a different cam at some point.

Engine is in the car, everything is bolted up except the wheels; issue is now even though I'm using either a mityvac or an electric fuel pump I can't seem to get the IP to have pressurized fuel going to the injectors. The only thing that changed was a local Malone guy had re-sealed the pump...i'm assuming that's the cause.

We can get some spurts of fuel out of the injector lines but not crazy high pressure like it did on the original build.

He's stopping up tomorrow after work so we can knock it out hopefully.

Crisis averted!



I was just over thinking things as usual after having such long days in the garage.



The gentleman that resealed the IP hadn't seated the QA correctly so he fixed that and then adjusted the IQ and pump timing.



Runs like a champ

More pics!

ToxicDoc said:

More pics!

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Fiiiine